Nasa’s $30mn bid to save ageing telescope from falling to Earth

Cape Canaveral (US): Nasa is preparing a $30 million mission to save its ageing Swift Observatory from falling back to Earth by boosting it into a higher orbit.

The rescue mission could launch as early as on Tuesday. Startup Katalyst Space Tech­no­logies has developed a robotic spacecraft, Lift, which will rendezvous with Swift, capture it using three robotic arms and raise its orbit from 360km to 600km over months.

Launched in 2004, Swift has been losing altitude because of intense solar activity. Nasa switched off its scientific instruments in Feb to slow its descent, buying time for the rescue. If successful, the telescope could resume operations by September.

The mission marks the first attempt by an American company to service and reposition a satellite in orbit. Nasa officials acknowledge there is no guarantee of success, as Swift was never designed to be repaired or retrieved.

Launched in 2004, Swift has spent over two decades studying gamma-ray bursts, explo­d­ing stars and other high-ene­r­gy cosmic events. Recent int­ense solar activity has incre­ased atmospheric drag, causing the observatory to lose altitude faster than expected and prompting Nasa to accelerate plans for the rescue mission.

Swift plays a key role in detecting gamma-ray bursts, exploding stars and other cosmic events. Nasa says replacing the observatory would be far more expensive than attempting the rescue. Kata­lyst hopes the mission will demonstrate technology that could later extend the life of other spacecraft, including the Hubble Space Telescope.

—AP